Chapter 26 - THE COUNCIL FALLSKeene ordered his guards to execute everyone below deck.
But the guards did not move.
Because Alvarez had spent the previous hour showing them exactly what Keene planned.
The carrier was rigged to explode after the transfer.
Just like the Resolute.
Destroy the witnesses.
Destroy the evidence.
Blame terrorists.
Again.
Ordinary men who had followed orders suddenly understood they were disposable.
One lowered his rifle.
Then another.
Then six.
Keene shouted from the observation booth:
“You are under military contract!”
A guard looked up.
“So were the men you buried on the Resolute.”
Keene ran.
The three corporate buyers ran with him.
Mara freed Thomas.
Eleanor intercepted one buyer at the flight-deck elevator.
Reyes arrested the second.
Nathan broadcast the verified financial records through six independent media servers.
The third buyer reached a helicopter.
Alvarez removed the ignition relay before he could start it.
Keene reached the stern alone.
Mara followed.
The old admiral stood against the rail with the harbor below.
“You think arresting me ends this?”
“No.”
“You think Black Tide has one leader?”
“No.”
“Then why are you smiling?”
Mara held up her phone.
“Because you spent ten minutes giving orders in front of thirty-seven witnesses.”
Keene looked behind her.
His own guards were standing there.
Weapons lowered.
Watching him.
For the first time in thirty years, Admiral Jonathan Keene possessed rank.
But no obedience.
Mara stepped forward.
“Jonathan Keene, you are under arrest.”
He looked at the water.
Then at Mara.
She knew what he was considering.
“No.”
May you like
His eyes narrowed.
“You don't get to choose the easy ending.”
